The Education Minister will formally bring charges against the former regional director of Education, based in Santiago, Deysi Diaz, for allegedly diverting thousands of school desks, teachers’ desks, filing cabinets, cupboards, and blackboards from the public schools. The scam is estimated to have bilked the system of RD$4 million. As reported in the La Informacion newspaper from Santiago, the deputy minister for Education, Fausto Mota, together with Pedro Diep, the new regional director, spoke of finding thousands of desks and other equipment in a warehouse in Don Pedro, a parish of Tamboril, near Santiago. The warehouse belongs to a man named Modesto Diaz, but it is not clear whether he is a relative of Deysi Diaz, the former regional director. Officials discovered 1,355 student desks, 75 cupboards, dozens of filing cabinets, 37 teachers’ desks and numerous blackboards. The ministry’s legal council will officially file the charges against the former director as well as several others. Diep told reporters that the discovery has led to indications there school furniture could be stored at other warehouses in Santiago.
A well-known educator himself, Diep was very cautious as he spoke to reporters about the events that led to the discovery. He praised the efforts of former Education Minister Milagros Ortiz Bosch, but also revealed that although she had ordered an inventory of all the belongings of the ministry under her charge, these pieces of equipment were left out, and Deysi Diaz was responsible for the ministry’s property. El Caribe was not as circumspect, titling their report “Mafia diverted equipment needed by schools” and referring to the clandestine storage of over 3,000 school desks.
School District 04 of Santiago requires 800 student desks. Rafael Perez, the district supervisor, is always flooded with requests for desks, but he has not had any to distribute so far.